Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Google sends Gmail to the Labs

So, have you ever taken a look at the Google Labs? There are lots of little things in there that you can add to make your Google experience a little better. Now do you have a Gmail account? I know some of your are saying "not another email account." Let me tell you I think I am up to seven myself and counting so I completely understand. But while you are looking through the Google Labs and if you have a Gmail account check out the Gmail Labs section from the link on the right side of the page under Other Experiments at Google.

There are a number of unique and interesting little feature add-ons that you can add to your Gmail account. I am not going to list everything out here in the blog but I will highlight a few things that I thought were interesting and then let you go and check out the rest of them. Now there is a disclaimer at the top of the page that lets you know ahead of time that these items are all in the experimental stages of development and could be removed at anytime. So don't freak out if one day you go into your Gmail and it does not look the same anymore due to a feature being removed from the Labs section. Gmail has a built in "escape hatch" they say to get things back to normal. It is a hyperlink to the standard Gmail web page.

So here are some of the things that I found interesting.

Google Offline: This feature allows you to put Gmail in your browser window and access it offline.

YouTube, Picasa and Flickr in your email: Preview within your mail items from the three sites listed.

Message Translation: Will automatically translate emails into English that you receive in other languages.

Right-side labels and Chats: It moves the boxes to the right hand side of the screen.

Navbar drag and drop: Allows you to move items on the navbar to other areas using the drag and drop method.

Create a Google Doc: Allows you to create a Google Doc from your email using the shortcut keys "g" and "w." You must have enabled the shortcut feature prior to being able to do this.

Again these are just a sample of the ones that I have used. Take it with a grain of salt and go take a look for yourself. Maybe you have an idea of a feature add-on that you could suggest to Google for the Gmail Labs.